At present, the appearance rate of "paying the bill" and "paying the bill" in newspapers and screens is very high, and the use of these two words is confusing and random. Look at the following example:
(1) "Who pays for large-scale performances" (Xinmin Evening News, 8th edition, March 8, 2004)
(2) Who pays for A3's ugliness (Wen Wei Po, 8th edition, February 28th, 2004)
(3) Don't worry, let my dad pay the bill (Yishou Digest, 6th edition, February 2, 2004).
(4) Highway construction should pay for soil erosion (Chongqing Daily, March 8, 2004)
On February 18, 2004, Wen Wei Po even appeared at the same time, "Who pays for graduate papers?" And "Who pays for this vicious family accident? This mixed situation is really a bit confusing.
In fact, the meaning of "paying the bill" and "paying the bill" is the same, and the common meaning is "paying the bill", such as (1)(3), from which the meaning of "taking responsibility and paying the price" is derived, such as (2) and (4). In this case, it is necessary to choose one of the two to avoid confusion. Who to take and who to give up? Let's analyze the meaning of the two first.
"Bill" means a document, a voucher for receipt and payment of money or goods, such as receipt, invoice, invoice, receipt and payment summons, etc.
"Buy", pronounced as m m m i, means "exchange money for something", as opposed to "sell", "pay the bill" is a payment receipt for shopping.
The word "bury" is mái, commonly known as "cover, hide and descend", such as "bury, ambush and bury your head"; "Complain" means "blame". No matter how the word "bill" is pronounced, it is meaningless to eat in a restaurant. Asking the waiter to "pay the bill" means asking him to hide the "documents".
It can be seen that it is logical to use "paying the bill" to mean "paying the bill" and to extend the meaning of "taking responsibility and paying the price", while it is even more puzzling to use "paying the bill" to mean "taking responsibility and paying the price". So I think we should take "paying the bill" instead of "paying the bill"
"Pay the bill" has its own reasons.
Li Liang
Restaurant checkout is called "paying the bill", which is the usage of Guangdong dialect. The Cantonese Dialect Dictionary (Commercial Press, 198 1 edition) has "paying the bill" instead of "paying the bill", and the definition of "paying the bill" is "checkout". This usage is the epitome of Guangdong culture and contains an understanding of life in Guangdong. There are three meanings: one is to remind the waiter to "bury" (come here), and "bury" means "close". This kind of personal service can not only facilitate customers, but also avoid the noise of restaurants; Second, the waiter "remembers" (writes down) the dishes that customers have eaten at any time, so that customers can understand the meaning of "accumulation" in consumption; Third, at the end of the meal, the waiter has "buried" (calculated) the customer's consumption amount in advance, avoiding the embarrassment of customers waiting for the checkout. "Bury" also means "settle down".
The phrase "paying the bill" in many parts of the country is actually a misuse of "paying the bill" in Cantonese. Checking out is not paying the bill. It is not feasible to settle accounts in the form of "paying the bill", nor can it reflect the rich connotation of "paying the bill". It is correct to pay the bill.
"Bury" in Cantonese
Wang Jin
In Cantonese, the word "mái" not only means "covering" and "hiding" in Mandarin, but also has strong regional significance. To sum up, there are four main types:
(1), such as "burying the mouth" (near), burying the body (near), burying the position (sitting), burying the tail (tail), burying the edge (standing) and so on.
(2) The extension of the former meaning, such as confrontation and conflict between the two sides, is called "burying teeth" and taking action is called "burying hands".
(3) Gather together, such as "burying the mouth" (wound healing), "burying piles" (accumulation) and "burying" (sorting things out).
(4) The extension of the third usage, for example, the summary data is called "burying the number" and the account cancellation is called "paying the bill".
Knowing the origin of the word "bill", we will understand that when checking out in a restaurant, we should say "bill" instead of "bill".
voucher of purchase
Luo Chixun
Teahouses and restaurants in the Pearl River Delta have the traditional habit of "eating first and paying later". After the customer finished eating, he called the waiter, "Pay the bill!" This "bill" was originally the abbreviation of "bill" and "bill".
In the past, teahouses and restaurants often determined the price of food according to the size or shape of tableware. Guys, you can tell the price of vegetables by looking at them. The man "buried" the tableware (counted by category), and through mental arithmetic, he could quickly "check out" (write the total consumption on a small document) and let customers pay at the counter.
After "paying the bill" and "paying the bill" are collectively referred to as "paying the bill", "paying the bill" generally refers to "paying the bill" and extends the meaning of "taking responsibility", such as: "Who will pay for inferior products?"
As for "paying the bill", it means "paying the bill of lading" in Cantonese. Around the 1970s, in order to avoid the inconvenience of bringing grain and oil, color TV sets and washing machines into China, some firms in Hong Kong, Macao and abroad began to handle the business of payment and delivery of bills of lading at designated places in China, such as "payment in Hong Kong and delivery in Guangzhou". By the end of last century, with the rapid development of China's economy, a service similar to "Shenzhen pays the bill, Hong Kong takes delivery" appeared.
It can be seen that "paying the bill" and "paying the bill" are two different words and should not be confused.
Evolutionary trajectory
Wang xueming
With the prosperity of the market economy and the advent of the internet age, the cultural information contained in Mandarin Chinese is becoming more and more abundant, and the emergence of a large number of new words reflects this change. The economy of the Pearl River Delta is "one step ahead" in the whole country. In the increasingly frequent economic and cultural exchanges, ideograms in some Cantonese dialects frequently appear in Mandarin. Such as "be fierce", "done", "unreasonable" and, of course, "pay the bill"
The absorption of dialect words in Putonghua pursues "takenism". If "Wang Wen" can "generate meaning", it might as well be quoted completely, such as "Sheng Meng"; If you feel uncomfortable and there is room for reform, then make bold reforms. For example, when you enter Mandarin, it is often written as "done" because "done" means "just" in Cantonese and "determined" means "resolute" in Mandarin. If it is difficult to understand and reform, I'm sorry, but I have to be wronged and not absorb it for the time being. Wulitou, for example, has been popular with Stephen Chow's films for some time, but its popularity is by no means comparable to that of Guan Jing. The Modern Chinese Dictionary (Supplementary Edition) includes Shengmeng, Guanjing and Wulitou.
Similar to the "fix" in Mandarin, "pay the bill" is often written as "pay the bill" after entering Mandarin. For example:
People began to get tired of many free information meals and began to "pay" for their much-needed knowledge and ability online. (Beijing Evening News 2002 +0.6)
After the debt, he "kidnapped" himself, and his brother forced his sister to pay the debt for him. (Tianfu Morning Post July 2003.19)
Not only that, the word "paying the bill" in Putonghua soon extended the meaning of "taking responsibility" just like the word "paying the bill" in Cantonese. For example:
Who pays for personal accidents? (Western Business Daily, July 24, 2002)
Doctors write prescriptions indiscriminately and pay for them themselves. (Southern Metropolis Daily 2003+0438+0.27)
This "makeover" is actually very easy to understand. From a national perspective, only a few people know the rich meaning of "buried" in Cantonese. If you don't have a certain research on Cantonese, who can trace back to the source and explain that "paying the bill" was originally short for "paying the bill" and "billing"?
But "buying" is different. All Chinese speakers are familiar with it. "Paying the bill" means "checking out" at a glance. Don't call it "checkout" after dinner, call it: "Miss, pay the bill!" It can not only show that you have traveled around the world and learned a lot, but also avoid the embarrassment that the young lady can't understand. "Paying the bill" is both exotic and easy to understand, and naturally it will soon be "deeply rooted in people's hearts".
From "paying the bill" to "paying the bill", it vividly illustrates the mutual influence and blending of Chinese dialects, and illustrates the absorption and innovation of dialect vocabulary by Putonghua.
Both "paying the bill" and "paying the bill" are appropriate.
Cao Guojun
Modern Chinese Dictionary (2002 supplementary edition) contains these two words. Under the item "Pay the bill", it reads: "Fang paid the bill after eating in a restaurant, and now it is also used for other entertainment consumption. Originally Cantonese, it was also said to pay the bill after being introduced into the northern dialect area. " There are two kinds of "paying the bill", and "paying the bill" 1 means: "The financial market is a document used as a proof of purchase." The explanation of "pay the bill" 2 is: see pay the bill. So it can be said that "paying the bill" and "paying the bill" are a pair of heterographs. Perhaps from the etymological point of view, modern Chinese takes "paying the bill" as the main text and "paying the bill" as the auxiliary text.
The Dictionary of Modern Chinese Standards (Chinese Press, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2004 edition) accepts both "Bill" and "Bill". "Pay the bill" has two meanings: (1) Pay the bill after eating in a restaurant, which generally means pay the bill; (2) metaphor to take responsibility. And "paying the bill" has two meanings: (1) is the same as "paying the bill"; (2) refers to the vouchers and documents purchased in the financial market. Here, "paying the bill" is the main thing, which is the same as modern Chinese, but its meaning is more comprehensive than modern Chinese. However, it is not accurate to say "Bill (1)" and "Bill (1)". "Bill (1)" should include two meanings of "bill".
Some dictionaries also affirm "paying the bill" and "paying the bill". Qian Nairong's Cool Language 2000 (Shanghai Education Press, 200 1) takes the word "bill", which is interpreted as "settlement payment" and also written as "bill", which originated from Cantonese. The dictionary of applied Chinese (Commercial Press, 2000 edition) accepts "bill", which is interpreted as: (Cantonese) means "bill", also called "bill". In Modern Chinese Dictionary (2000 edition), there are both "Bill" and "Bill", which mean "Bill, Bill Club" and "Bill Ye" respectively, while "Bill" means "Bill" with the same meaning.
It can be seen that "paying the bill" and "paying the bill" can go hand in hand and there is no need to separate them.
voucher of purchase
Wang Guofeng
Since "paying the bill" and "paying the bill" are heterographs, there will be a standardized day sooner or later. Who should I choose? The Dictionary of Xinhua New Words by the Commercial Press euphemistically expresses a state: as a Cantonese dialect, it was originally written as "paying the bill" and when it entered Mandarin, it was written as "paying the bill". Many people accept this attitude. Judging from the frequency of use of the two now, "paying the bill" is significantly higher than "paying the bill". Searching on "Baidu" can find about 550,000 pages related to "paying the bill", and there are160,000 pages related to "paying the bill".
It is the general trend and inevitable to use "paying the bill", because "paying the bill" is easy to understand. Theoretically speaking, it conforms to the habit of China people to use words to find meaning, and embodies the concrete characteristics of China people's thinking (see Shen Xiaolong's Cultural Interpretation of Language, Knowledge Publishing House); In fact, this is another example of dialect words entering Putonghua. There are many similar situations in Chinese, such as dialect words "Bishan", "Gudong" and "Edge Ball", which are written as "beggar", "antique" and "awkward" when they enter Mandarin. Reasonable changes follow the principles of "necessity, universality and clarity" in vocabulary norms.
Some people may say that only by paying the bill can it retain its oral color and local characteristics. In this regard, please read Zhou Zhiping's Divergence in the Development of Chinese in Taiwan Province Province (reading, February 2004). Mr. Zhou believes that when writing dialects with Chinese characters, the color of spoken language is preserved, but when this kind of spoken language can only be understood by people in limited areas, it will become "extinct language"; The price of sinicization of dialects is self-isolation, or isolation from most people. This shows from the opposite side that dialect words are doomed if they are not integrated into the ocean of ordinary words in a form acceptable to the public.
Interestingly, now that "paying the bill" has entered the "hometown" of "paying the bill"-Guangzhou, it seems that not all Cantonese people refuse to pay the bill. Try two situations:
Payment for background music: There is no enterprise payment in Guangzhou (Guangzhou Daily, July 6, 2004).
There are many problems in the after-sales service of parallel cars (Guangzhou Daily, August 29, 2004).
In short, absorbing "paying the bill" is rewritten as "paying the bill". To paraphrase a popular saying, Putonghua absorbs dialect words, but does not introduce them mechanically and blindly.
Don't "pay the bill" when it is time to "pay the bill"
Zhong Sun
In Mandarin, "bill" and "bill" are new words, but Ci Hai, Ci Yuan and Chinese Dictionary are not included. In the case that the two have not been produced for a long time, it is good to make them universal as long as they do not cause misunderstanding. With the passage of time and the convergence of people's understanding, a "winner" will naturally appear. But if I have to choose, I think it is more accurate to "pay the bill" after eating in a restaurant.
On the one hand, commonness and motivation are also important aspects of screening heterographs. From the etymological point of view, it is obvious that "paying the bill" is the prototype and "paying the bill" is the deformation. The reason of "paying the bill" is very clear in Cantonese, but "paying the bill" does not exist in Cantonese, and even in Mandarin, "paying the bill" is unreasonable.
Just out of the Cantonese circle, "paying the bill" is really not easy to understand, so "paying the bill" appeared. As an expedient measure, "paying the bill" is only the forerunner and bridge of "paying the bill". With the further communication between North and South cultures, Guangdong culture is known to more and more people. Once people understand that the source of "paying the bill" is "paying the bill" and the true meaning of "paying the bill", they will naturally give up "paying the bill" and choose "paying the bill".
In fact, in recent years, the use of "paying the bill" in non-Cantonese areas has become more and more common. Let's look at the following statistics: from People's Daily 1995 1 to 1999 12 3 1, there are two "paying bills" and 14 "paying bills"; From 1 in 2000 to 1 in April 2004, there were 27 "bills paid" and 48 "bills paid". Although the total number of "paying bills" is still dominant, after 2000, the number of "paying bills" has only increased by less than 3.5 times, while the number of "paying bills" has increased by 13.5 times!
In addition, from a systematic point of view, "paying the bill" is still a special term, which refers to the document that the financial market serves as the proof of buying, and the corresponding "selling bill" refers to the document that the financial market serves as the proof of selling. Since "paying the bill" and "selling the bill" have formed a relatively complete system and have their own special semantics, why not draw a clear line between "paying the bill" and "paying the bill" and each department should take its own responsibilities? The result of the division of labor is naturally to make "paying the bill" and "closing the bill" and turn "paying the bill" into a "document".
It can be seen that "paying the bill" has reason to surpass "paying the bill" as the first choice, regardless of motivation, universality or systematicness. Perhaps, it is after considering all aspects that authoritative dictionaries such as Modern Chinese Dictionary will make the choice of "paying the bill".
editorial comment/note
There are more participants in this "consultation" than usual, and many of them are from Guangdong. It is they who have made clear the origin and rich cultural connotation of "paying the bill".
Through discussion, we can basically draw a conclusion that the word "Bill" from Cantonese and the changed word "Bill" are a pair of heterographs. The appearance of "paying the bill" meets the needs of communication, and the process from "paying the bill" to "paying the bill" reflects people's flexible use of language. In the application, it is the popularity of "paying the bill" that makes more people know about "paying the bill"; With the existence of "bill payment", people can understand "bill payment" more accurately.
It is not easy to choose a definite rule between the two, but the editor must make a statement. What is certain is that "paying the bill" is the source and "paying the bill" is the stream. At present, the popularity of "paying the bill" is not enough to shake the foundation of "paying the bill". As more and more people understand "bill", "bill" may be replaced by "bill"; But it is also possible that the heat of "paying the bill" will increase day by day, forming a unique peak. In short, it is difficult to predict who will win or lose. In this evenly matched situation, we believe that the choice of dialect areas should be respected first. Since this word has entered the field of Putonghua as a dialect, it should be written in the dialect area, otherwise, it will inevitably cause confusion. If one day the dialect area also accepts the "bill", then we will naturally change our position.